ADHD son

[prayingparent]

My son is nine years old and has been on Adderall XR 15mg for the past 9 months and
recently was bumped up to Adderall XR 20mg.

The doctor now is suggesting we change to a whole new drug Concerta 27mg.

This moving up in dosage and changing greatly concerns us.

We have always had concerns about the side effects and they have gotten worse. Emotional,sometimes angry,no appetite(he is still the same weight he was a year ago), and it is not even helping him the whole day anymore.

We have be checking out this be calm'd and a wanting to try it. The doctor is not positive about it helping but says he can take it and can take with his adderall.

We just don't know what to do. WE want what is best for our son. Not something that is going to cause more harm.

[catatonic]

Hi and welcome. I'm glad you found your way over here from the other board.

On the beCalm'd, this question comes up regularly, thanks to the incredibly aggressive marketing tactics employed by the BeCalmd multi-level marketing scheme.

While there are a couple of people who post here reporting positive results with BeCalmd, there are far more who've tried it and decided that it's a waste of money. From an objective point of view, a review of the ingredients indicates that while there are a number of things that most certainly are beneficial for ADHD symptoms, they are not present in appropriate quantities. There are a number of ingredients that most likely do absolutely nothing. There are some that, in certain subgroups of children with ADHD, may actually worsen symptoms.

I'd be happy to give you very specific supplement information (and where beCalm'd fails to stack up) if you're interested.

If you are considering trying non-medication treatment for your son, I would suggest you find Laura Stevens' book "12 Effective Ways to Help Your ADD/ADHD Child". It's generally available in libraries, or you can buy a copy through her website at users.nlci.com/nutrition/

I would also suggest you take a look at the Feingold Association website at www.feingold.org We follow the Feingold diet (which eliminates all artificial colors, artificial flavors, and the preservatives BHA, BHT and TBHQ and it has made an amazing impact on the angry/emotional/temper tantrum type behavior.

The long term safety of these medications has NEVER been researched so I'd urge you to at least investigate the options.

[sierra]

Comparing adderall and concerta doses is comparing apples and oranges. There's more stimulant per mg in the Adderall. 27 mg of Concerta is the equivalent of taking three 7.5 mg ritalin pills over the course of a day according to our doc. Usually the lowest dose of ritalin is 5 mg per dose. I have heard of cases where a 5 mg pill was being split. Especially for the homework dose.

[babytay]

I have been through this same thing. My son is 7 he started on adderall and was crying about everything. then he was changed to concerta and cried about everything. Neither one really made us happy but the meds did help behavior it was just to many side effects. I am trying supplements now and it is going really slow. I havent tried becalmed I am using gaba. Our doc doesnt agree either I have a post about it.
We are happy now that my son is using the supplements but it is a lot of work. It is a little more rewarding when my son does well now because I know he had to work really hard for it.

[JohnBark]

my son has just started beCALM'd. can't say it's changed a thing yet. however, we are going to start the Feingold lifestyle as soon as they mail it to me. we have never tried meds yet. our goal is to stay away from them at all cost!!!

good luck on beCALM'd and let me know if you have any success with it!

[catatonic]

I am really NOT a fan of BeCalm'd. I think the only thing really going for it is its amazingly aggressive marketing. Specifically:

The magnesium content is useless. Therapeutic dose is 6 mg per pound of body weight. For my 85 pound son, that's over 500mg daily. BeCalm'd contains 25mg.

The B12 content is likewise useless. A basic B-complex like a Balanced B-50 will contain 50mg. BeCalm'd contains 1mg. It does not contain any of the other B vitamins.

Folic acid content at 100mcg doesn't come close to recommended daily intake of 400mcg.

Now for the really bad stuff:

BeCalm'd contains phenylalanine. This is an evil substance that may actually CAUSE symptoms associated with ADHD. Additionally, it competes with tryptophan for absorption in the brain and tryptophan is what's needed to produce seratonin. If you'd like more information on the evils of phenylalanine, take a look at the website www.sweetpoison.com/phenylalanine.html

BeCalm'd also contains glutamine. All other glutamine issues aside, there is research indicating that children with ADHD already have TOO MUCH glutamine in their brains.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12897644&dopt=Abstract

Have I trashed the BeCalm'd enough yet? Sorry to be so obnoxious about it, but I just hate to see people misled by this product. I really don't believe it does a darned thing.